Modem healthcare facilities typically have available a large number of drug or pharmaceutical solutions and other medicaments to administer to patients. Often, drug solutions or premixed solutions may be administered without further preparation. For some drugs, it may be necessary to store the drug in a concentrated form, which may be either liquid or particulate in nature, to maintain the stability and potency of the drug for a reasonable shelf life. Also, concentrated compositions facilitate efficient storage and handling.
To concentrate a drug which is in liquid form, a lyophilization process is used. The drug is subjected to a vacuum in a chamber to remove most of the water and then to concentrate the drug. After lyophilization the drug is sealed and prepared for shipment to a healthcare facility.
At the healthcare facility, the concentrated drug is reconstituted by a syringe mixing system. The concept of separately packaging and then mixing drug and diluent components within a vial and/or a syringe barrel is known. However, many of the known syringe mixing systems require special or unusual components, require many operational steps, and/or require the use of a sharp, hollow needle or cannula which can be hazardous.
Additionally, for some drugs, particularly protein based drugs, a silicone free environment is desirable. A container closing structure which does not require a silicone sealing oil that is typically used in conjunction with reciprocatable stoppers, would be advantageous. It would be also advantageous if the closing structure would maintain sterility of the container during reconstitution.